A boat accident in Congo kills more than 100 people in the second deadly capsize this week

Kinshasa, Congo – Two accidents of distinct boats this week in northwest Congo killed at least 193 people and let the results disappear, the authorities and the state media said on Friday.

Accidents took place on Wednesday and Thursday, about 150 kilometers from each other in the province of Ecuador.

A boat with nearly 500 passengers caught fire and capsized Thursday evening along the Congo River in the Lukolela territory of the province, said the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs of Congo in a report. The report indicates that 209 survivors were rescued following the accident, involving a whale boat near the village of Malange in the territory of Lukolela.

One day earlier, a motorized boat capsized in the Basankusu territory of the province, killing at least 86 people, most of them, reported the state media. Several people were missing, but the reports did not give a number of the number.

It was not immediately clear which caused an accident or if the rescue operations continued on Friday evening.

The state media awarded the accident on Wednesday to “poor charge and night navigation”, citing reports of the scene. The images that seemed to come from the scene have shown that the villagers gathered around the bodies crying.

A group of local civil society blamed the government’s accident on Wednesday and said that the toll was higher. The authorities could not be immediately joined to comment.

The capacity of boats is becoming more and more frequent in this Central African nation while more and more people abandon the few roads available for cheaper wooden ships which collapse under the weight of passengers and their goods.

In such trips, the life jackets are rare and the ships are generally overloaded.

Many boats also travel at night, complicating rescue efforts during accidents and leaving many often not counted bodies.